Lien, also chairman of a foundation on cross-Strait peaceful development, leads a delegation from the island to visit sites related to Beijing's urban construction and countryside.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told reporters on Monday that Lien will meet Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and the delegation will attend a forum with their mainland peers.

In 2005, as KMT chairman, Lien met Hu Jintao, predecessor of Xi, in the first talks between leaders of the two parties in six decades.